Invasion of the body scanners

By Lise FisherStaff writer

Friday

Apr 9, 2010 at 12:01 AM

A woman playing the role of an airline passenger raises her arms while being scanned by a millimeter wave imaging system operated by Transportation Security Administration officials (Photo by The New York Times)

Pittsburgh resident Joe Chiatello flies regularly and he's yet to pass through a full-body imaging machine at an airport.Unlike some who have raised privacy concerns about the scanners, which see through clothing, Chiatello isn't worried."I see it as it's just the next step in security," said the 52-year-old, who was flying out of the Gainesville Regional Airport following a work trip to North Florida.Chances are, however, that Chiatello and others who are frequent fliers will soon be coming face-to-face with the scanners that produce ghostly images of a person's body sans clothing for airport security to examine.The Transportation Security Administration last week announced plans have been stepped up to have about 1,000 of the machines in airports around the country by the end of 2011.There are now 46 in place at 23 airports in the U.S. Seven more airports across the country will soon be getting the scanners, according to the TSA's Web site.Florida has the highest number of airports in the country already using the scanners. Three airports in Florida - Jacksonville, Miami and Tampa - operate the devices, the TSA reported. The Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is on the list to get them.There are no plans in the works for the Gainesville airport to be equipped with the scanners, said Michelle Danisovszky, manager of public relations and government affairs for the Gainesville airport.The Orlando International Airport also is not on the TSA list of airports that have or will soon be getting the scanners.But the Orlando airport is looking to receive some scanners in the second half of 2010, although no definitive date has been set, said spokeswoman Carolyn Fennell. The airport has tested new technology for airports in the past from scanners that identify liquids to X-ray equipment, she said.

Still, passengers on flights heading to the Gainesville Regional Airport likely will run into the imaging machines sooner instead of later.Flights at the Gainesville airport travel to and from Charlotte, N.C., and the Atlanta airport. The Charlotte Douglas International Airport is another airport scheduled to soon get the scanners, the TSA reported. Atlanta's airport already has them.Other major airports in the country with the scanners are Boston Logan International Airport, Chicago O'Hare International Airport, Denver International Airport and the Los Angeles International Airport.The TSA uses scanners with two types of imaging technology - millimeter wave and backscatter. Most airports currently use millimeter wave, which the TSA reports projects energy 10,000 times less than a cell phone transmission. It uses electromagnetic waves that bounce off a person's body and create a black and white, three-dimensional image. Radiation from backscatter screening is below safety levels specified by the American National Standards Institute, according to the TSA.The screening is optional at airports equipped with the devices, according to the TSA. However, those who don't pass through them at these airports get "an equal level of screening, including a physical pat-down," the agency reported.Ellen Schwartz, 59, from the Bronx in New York City, hasn't been through a full-body scanner yet, she said as she waited at the Gainesville Regional Airport for a departing flight."It's a little invasion of privacy," said Schwartz, who had been visiting a friend here. And, like Chiatello, she wondered how much the scanners really will stop someone determined to thwart security and get a weapon onto a plane.Plus, Chiatello said, it all depends on how the airport itself and its employees manage the technology. Traveling through different airports, he said he found some took security precautions more seriously than others.Last week the TSA said scanners already in use have revealed drugs on passengers that wouldn't have been caught by metal detectors.One location where passengers were stopped with drugs thanks to the scanners was at the Jacksonville airport. In the past year, the machines that are in place have uncovered more than 60 "artfully concealed" items considered illegal or prohibited, the TSA reported.

In March, however, a security worker at London's Heathrow Airport received a warning from police and faced disciplinary action after a female worker claimed he ogled her using a full-body scanner and made lewd comments, Reuters reported."I think if they don't have anything to hide, you shouldn't worry about it," said Maine resident Kate Baker, 45, as she prepared to fly out of the Gainesville airport.But, she added, in spite of all the security measures she and her luggage passed through on her flight south, no one caught a fingernail file that she didn't realize was in her pocketbook.Transportation security officers at airports must identify any metal that is detected at a checkpoint, according to the TSA.It was only when Baker went through security at the federal courthouse in Ocala that an officer, checking people and baggage, spotted the file.Contact Lise Fisher at 374-5092 or fisherl@gvillesun.com.

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